Exfoliation Facts and a Face Scrub for Weirdly Soft Skin

Washing your face with a scrubby washcloth is a great way to exfoliate your skin on a daily basis, and is not harsh or harmful to the skin. Once in a while, though, I still like to use an exfoliating mask or scrub because I like it! It feels good, smells good, and works good! HA!

There are many ways to exfoliate the skin. These can be broken down into two types: mechanical and chemical. Mechanical exfoliants are textures (like the washcloth), bits of something (salt, sugar, ground almond shells), basically anything scrubby. Chemical exfoliants are substances that contain acids. Yoghurt, for example, contains lactic acid and is considered a chemical exfoliant. Retin-A and salicylic acid are chemical exfoliants. You get the picture.

So why should we exfoliate our skin?

Here's the full story:

The epidermis has five layers to it. The very top layer is the Stratum Corneum. The Stratum Corneum is composed of skin cells (corneocytes) that have migrated upward through the rest of the epidermis. It takes 14 days for a corneocyte to form and rise to the surface. The Stratum Corneum renews itself completely every 4 to 6 weeks.  A lot of people call corneocytes "dead" skin cells. They have no nucleus and do not reproduce or change during this phase. The phrase "dead skin cells" gives this layer a bad reputation. More on that below...

Corneocytes (dead skin cells) overlap like scales to form the Stratum Corneum, the outermost layer of your skin (Pic from National Geographic).

This layer is slightly acidic (pH 5), which is a hostile environment for pathogens. This keeps yuckies from traveling into the body. The cells have a very dense network of keratin, a protein. This forms a barrier, which prevents water evaporation. These cells can also absorb water, hydrating the skin. That's why your skin wrinkles in the water! The protein bond in this layer is what causes the elasticity of the skin. So it works chemically as well as mechanically to protect the body.

Great explanation from The Sciency Hair Blog: here

The Stratum corneum is the top layer of skin and if you have sensitive skin, this is the place where your efforts can make the most difference. Don’t think of it as a pile of dead skin cells – it’s way more active than that. Imagine a brick wall. The corneocytes are the bricks made of protein (lots of keratin – like hair) which can hold a lot of water. There are around a dozen layers of these, linked by proteins at the outer layer of the corneocyte and surrounded. These protein bonds are the “mortar.” Lipids and ceramides and other components from living cells below blend together to form an environment surrounding the corneocytes (around the bricks and mortar) The lipid mixture, “mortar” and the linkage between corneocytes creates a flexible, but strong layer at the top of the skin, both repelling water from outside the skin and preventing water loss from the skin. In this lipid layer is cholesterol, amino acids, triglycerides, phospholipids, glucosaminoglycans, hyaluronic acid to name a few. These linkages break and corneocytes are shed daily, but new ones take their place from beneath.

The body naturally sheds these dead cells on a regular basis. This process is called desquamation. Desquamation generally takes place at a rate consistent with the production of new corneocytes, maintaining a stable Stratum Corneum (340,200,000 to 453,600,000 cells per day). The lipid layer, which hold the skin cells together on the Stratum Corneum, dissolves by enzymatic action, and the unhinged corneocytes ("dead" skin cells) fall away. This hopefully keeps pace with the production of NEW corneocytes!

All right. Here are some pictures for your perusal:

Great micro photo of the epidermis (from Wikipedia).

Unhinged corneocytes (dead skin cells) falling away.

So the lesson here is: Maintain the layer! This is all news to me, I must admit. I always thought the "dead" skin cells were bad and something to be gotten rid of. So many words have been put out there telling us to scrub that stuff off. This is from companies who are trying to sell us something. Yes, many people have a problematic stratum corneum, but in general, the stratum corneum is something to be treasured, nurtured like a sweet little creature. Not villified!

Some people experience an accumulation of corneocytes. This causes a dull, scaly appearance to the skin. This can be caused by a variety of things, including an interruption of the enzymatic process that breaks the bonds between the corneocytes, and/or an overproduction of the corneocytes, and/or the unhinged corneocytes remaining stuck to the skin in another way, like being trapped in a follicle. In addition, the shape and size of corneocytes is a factor in their release. As humans age, skin cells become flatter and more irregular in size and shape. The cells don't turn over as quickly. All this affects their capacity to form an effective barrier and their capacity to slough off by themselves. This causes changes in hydration maintenance, skin thickness, and skin texture.

So exfoliation is a must, but over-exfoliation is a must not for aging skin.

The Scrub

Here's a recipe for a gentle scrub that will leave your skin softer than you thought it could ever be. Truly. It combines mechanical and chemical action.You will need brown or white table sugar (raw is okay), fresh organic lemon juice, and milk or cream (optional).

 

The ingredients:

Sugar

The sugar works both chemically and physically. Sugar has glycolic acid, which is a water soluble alpha hydroxy acid. When left on the skin for a while, glycolic acid weakens the lipid layer in the Statum corneum, releasing the corneocytes. Sugar is also grainy, which physically sloughs the dead skin cells off the surface. Some people use salt as an exfoliant, but I find it too harsh.

Lemon juice

Lemon juice is citric acid, which is another alpha hydroxy acid and works in the same way as glycolic acid (by causing the lipid layer to release the corneocytes).

Milk or cream

Has lactic acid, another alpha hydroxy, that does the same thing as citric and glycolic acids.

Alpha hydroxy acid

 Alpha hydroxy acid is what they call bioavailable because the molecules are small enough to penetrate the stratum corneum. In addition to affecting the lipid layer, it increases the production of mucopolysaccharides and collagen and increases skin thickness. These are good things for us!

From the Skin Care Innovation Website: here!

Mucopolysaccharide is found in connective tissue, skin, bone and cartilage together with proteins from the intercellular cells where collagen and elastin are embedded.

Mucopolysaccharides are substances which form highly viscous solutions having more or less gelatinous or slippery and partially sticky properties. They apparently act as intercellular lubricants.

Mucopolysaccharides also play an important part of normal cell function in intercellular substance transportation in fibrillogenesis and the stabilization of cellular and fibrillar constituents of the connection tissue.

Indications are available showing that mucopolysaccharides influence the quality of the kind of collagen fibril aggregation and that they determine the diameter of the collagen fiber bundle.

Wound healing process involves mucopolysaccharides. During skin and wound healing, their content in the wound area is considerably higher in order to reach again the standard value after healing.

Mucopolysaccharides are said to have a positive influence on skin modification in cellulites and responsible for the elasticity, resilience and the strength of the skin. The dermal mucopolysaccharide content decreases with advancing age; therefore, by replenishment, it would be reasonable to think that the skin would remain stronger and softer longer.

 Hooray! Now let's get all that awesome stuff onto our faces, shall we?

Milk and lemon juice mixture pic

 The recipe:

1/4 cup white or brown sugar  

1 tablespoon lemon juice and/or milk 

(mixing the lemon juice and milk together will sour the milk, which is a good thing in this case)

Mix all the stuff together until you get a grainy, wet consistency. I do this on a saucer. Rub the mixture on your face gently. Let it sit for about an hour. Use your fingertips to gently GENTLY! scrub in small circles for about two minutes. Rinse with warm water followed by a splash of cold water. 

Moisturize with a drop of hemp oil and you're done! Use the extra mixture to exfoliate the hands. You can make a bunch of this and keep it in the fridge for 3-5 days to use in the shower, also.

I do this once a month or so. My skin is so freakin soft afterwards it's almost unreal.

MIRI